It is that time again where I would like to share with you a tool that I have come to find incredibly useful. That tool would be my iPad.

I will briefly list ways that i use my iPad and by no means is this an exhaustive list. I would love to hear other ways that maybe you have found to use yours. This post could also help serve as the “push” for those of you wondering is getting an iPad an idea that would be beneficial for you.

Here is my list:
1. Secondary Desktop Display. Air Display will make your iPad a second screen for your Mac.

2. Access your mac remotely. There are a ton of services out there that allow you to do this, and will also allow you to work from your iPad to your desktop. Among many choices, I like LogMeIn Ignition ($30 if you want to configure as little as possible) and iTeleport ($25), plus VNC Viewer ($10) if you want to manually set it up. You’ll first configure the PC with a server utility (or an option built into the OS) first, then you can connect anywhere.

3. Reading books. This has become my number one way to read books, e-books. Reading this way allows me to not have extra weight of the printed book, books sync to furthest place read on all my devices, and many more reasons to make the switch. You can check out a couple more of my blogs where I talk more about ebooks, here, and here, and here.

4. Print from iPad and not have to carry big MacBook Pro around. Several apps download network or online files to the iPad and can send them to a printer. Some apps even edit documents first, but many are difficult to use.

I had the best luck with PrintCentral, one of many printing tools from the same developer. (The vendor created a chart to explain all the different offerings, but it would have been most helpful to make a single, great app.) You’ll install a print server utility on a Mac or PC, and PrintCentral uses it to reach your local or network printer.

4. Looking over web content offline. Whether you have a 3G version or not, your iPad faces certain situations where it can’t be online: planes, train tunnels, and other network-not-found destinations. You can still keep up on all of your favorite Websites with Instapaper Pro ($5). This tool manages content you want to read later and caches articles for times that you’re offline.

Instead of directly browsing content you want to save, Instapaper interfaces with several computer and iPad apps. Within those tools—Safari, Google Reader, NetNewsWire, Twitterrific, Tweetie, and more—you’ll hit a Read Later button that sends details to Instapaper.

Load Instapaper once, when you have a network connection, and it downloads all of those stories. Then, you can dig deep into those articles from any location, with or without a network. This saves me a ton of time.

5. Increased Productivity. File management–get Goodreader (misnamed horribly), which allows you to support a folder/file structure, import documents from the cloud, and open documents in appropriate applications, such as pages. TaskPro or Todo Queue for task management, iThoughtsHD–a terrific mind mapping application, Evernote and so many more apps. This area keeps changing for me all the time.

6. Connecting iPad to a projector. While traveling or going across town to speak a children’s pastor network luncheon, I find it very convenient to grab the ipad and my Apple VGA cable and hook into their projector when I get there.

7. Photo editing on the iPad. Since my iPhone and all the apps that go with it to make it a better camera has become my number one go to camera, I find that editing on my iPad is now becoming my go to editing studio. Plus with my new ipad it comes with a camera as well.

There are so many more uses that I have found to prove the reason I have picked today as my tool to mention on Gadget/Tool Wednesdays. Let me know how you may use yours?

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Todd McKeever

I have the privilege of being an Executive Pastor for Family and Ministry Operations in Des Moines, IA
I oversee a growing ministry where every weekend you can always see families coming in to have a real experience with the life-changing Savior – Jesus.
I am married to Rachel, the best wife that God could have handpicked for me. We have been given three incredible gifts from God by the names of Jenelle, Camille, and Zachary.
Lastly, I enjoy fishing with family, reading about leadership, task management, all things Macintosh and gadgets.

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Todd McKeever

I have the privilege of being an Executive Pastor for Family and Ministry Operations in Des Moines, IA
I oversee a growing ministry where every weekend you can always see families coming in to have a real experience with the life-changing Savior – Jesus.
I am married to Rachel, the best wife that God could have handpicked for me. We have been given three incredible gifts from God by the names of Jenelle, Camille, and Zachary.
Lastly, I enjoy fishing with family, reading about leadership, task management, all things Macintosh and gadgets.